Applebee's Lunch Decoys: Chain Selling Inflatable Dolls To Use At Office Desks | HuffPost Life

Applebee's Gets In The Inflatable Doll Business

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Clearly, Applebee's wasn't happy with its standings on HuffPost Food's Chain Food Showdown. So it's gone ahead and come up with a sort of crazy newfangled marketing approach: selling inflatable dolls. No, really.

The idea behind this tongue-in-cheek campaign for their new Pick 'N Pair lunch is to have workers use an inflatable doll as a replacement for their physical presence. That way, they can totally take time for lunch (at Applebee's, clearly) and no one will notice that they've been replaced by a blow-up doll (aka "lunch decoy" in Applebee's-speak). Genius, right?

This isn't just a silly commercial though. Applebee's is actually selling these dolls through Amazon for $6.99. You can choose from six different models such as The Executive or The Cubicle Queen.

Here's the commercial:

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Before You Go

Chain Food Showdown Wrap-Up

1. Chili's(01 of08)

First Place: Buffalo Wings, Potato Skins, French Fries, Onion Rings, Chicken StripsRecommended: Nachos, Mozzarella Sticks, Spinach DipChili's pretty much killed it -- every single item we tried was either recommended or was the winner (five out of eight!) in its category. Everything was made as it should be, and that's really what separated the winners from the losers. While nothing at Chili's was extraordinary, none of the dishes were cooked poorly, or weren't tasty. The food at Chili's tasted as you expected. It was indulgent without being greasy, fried without being overkill.

2. The Cheesecake Factory(02 of08)

First Place: Mozzarella Sticks, Spinach DipRecommended: Buffalo Wings, Nachos, Chicken StripsLast Place: French Fries, Onion RingsWhen we discussed with colleagues the chains we were visiting, everyone assumed that The Cheesecake Factory would trump the competition by far. People typically seem to love the wide-ranging menu and massive portions. While the food at Cheesecake Factory was definitely better than most (spinach dip with actual spinach, mozzarella sticks with quality cheese ), the french fries and onion rings were the worst we sampled. But there's plenty more to choose from. (credit:Flickr: Like_the_Grand_Canyon)

3. Hard Rock Cafe(03 of08)

Recommended: Buffalo Wings, Potato Skins, French Fries, Chicken StripsNot Recommended: Nachos, Onion RingsHard Rock Cafe was generally solid. Unlike Cheesecake Factory, nothing was especially gross. But overall, Cheesecake Factory still gets the edge because it had some especially good dishes, whereas Hard Rock just had some solid ones. The nachos were the most disappointing -- to use an extremely technical term, we found them quite "blah." (credit:Flickr: robert.claypool)

4. Applebee's(04 of08)

Recommended: Mozzarella Sticks, French Fries, Spinach Dip, Chicken StripsNot Recommended: Buffalo WingsLast Place: NachosSimilar to Hard Rock Cafe, Applebee's also struggled with its nachos. Too. much. lettuce. Beyond that, Applebee's food was generally fine -- nothing amazing but nothing horrifying. It could be worse. Much worse. (credit:Flickr: In Paris Texas)

5. T.G.I. Friday's(05 of08)

First Place: NachosRecommended: Chicken StripsNot Recommended: Buffalo Wings, Potato Skins, French FriesLast Place: Mozzarella Sticks, Spinach DipT.G.I. Friday's was full of huge inconsistencies. Their nachos appetizer was not only the winner of that category, but also one of the best dishes across all categories. We loved them. That can't be said for most of the other items though. Except for the chicken strips, everything was pretty awful. The mozzarella sticks were horrible on account of both the breading and the cheese. The chips for the spinach dip were soapy. Stick to the nachos and steer clear of mostly everything else. (credit:Flickr: soeperbaby)

6. Red Lobster(06 of08)

Recommended: Nachos, Onion RingsNot Recommended: Buffalo Wings, Mozzarella Sticks, French Fries, Spinach Dip, Chicken StripsRed Lobster had no winners but a lot of losers. With the exception of the excellent onion rings and the tasty nachos, we'd avoid everything else. The spinach dip sticks out in our minds as particularly egregious -- it was separated and very oily.They should get bonus points for their cheesy biscuits though -- those are good. (credit:Flickr: me and the sysop)

7. Planet Hollywood(07 of08)

Recommended: Buffalo Wings, French FriesNot Recommended: Spinach DipLast Place: Potato Skins, Chicken StripsPlanet Hollywood doesn't quite get last place thanks to a few dishes that weren't too horrible. But it was by far our worst dining experience because when the dishes were bad, they were REALLY bad. We never want to see those chicken strips again. And when you're calling something potato skins but they appear in large chunks, it doesn't really count.

8. Ruby Tuesday(08 of08)

Recommended: Spinach DipNot Recommended: French Fries, Onion Rings, Chicken StripsLast Place: Buffalo WingsPoor Ruby Tuesday. You didn't really have that much going for you, though we wish your salad bar could count for something. While most of the dishes weren't outright disgusting, they just weren't very good either. Your spinach dip was a saving grace, which was...decent enough.

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